Northern Rock shares dip

SHARES in troubled British mortgage lender, Northern Rock sagged yesterday as signs a possible sale will take some time outweighed a report that private equity firm Cerberus has lined up financial help for a bid.

Northern Rock — which holds a 3% share of the Irish banking market through its 6,700 account holders — is set to be taken over after a funding crisis forced it to borrow over £20bn (€28.6bn) from the Bank of England in the last six weeks. A Virgin group-led consortium and private equity firm JC Flowers have said they are considering bids.